Hummingbird & Cardinal...The Color of Love

Of the many realizations Hummingbird had had over the 14 plus seasons with Cardinal she flew in a perpetual state of urgency. Where Cardinal’s flight was calm and quiet, Hummingbird’s was often chaotic. She flew motivated by what could be, what could occur, “What if there is a heat wave and it dries up all the flowers? What if someone gets all the Delphinium nectar before me (she had a very sensitive small intestine and that was one of the only flowers which didn’t puff her up)? What if? What if? What if?

Cardinal on the other hand lived particularly for the moment consistently focusing on what is rather than what was or could be. “Here is a great opportunity for nesting—it’s shady and sturdy and millipede-free. Here is where we are so let’s slurp up…the here…now. “

Cardinal was a present tenser; she was more of a futurer. Such attitudes were less a result of socialization but of biology, or ecology. Cardinal was a constant, never really a visitor always a native to whatever lands, feeders or backyards he flew to; he lived with a sense of certainty. Hummingbird, migratory by nature, was always in a state of temporary.

As their lives together merged (in the past years Hummingbird’s family and Cardinal’s family shared seeds and stories at the annual Fall Harvest) their differing temperaments became more and more evident. Hummingbird sensing that a storm was coming would anxiously begin to prepare herself, start stocking up on seeds and nectar in preparation of what might be. Cardinal also sensing the same storm would wait until its near arrival and then begin the process of preparing. Hummingbird would worry, Cardinal would wait. How to love and live together when one is a ‘waiter’ and one is a worrier? Could they do it? 14 seasons in they slept in each others' nests, but maintained their own. To get to 15 seasons and 16 and 18 and forever what would it take to make a nest of their own?

Was that what had to be done? Hummingbird wasn’t so sure she knew, but knew they needed something. Complacency was for the birds, just not these birds. Maybe she would leave some of her feathers at his nest? Maybe they could etch their names together in old Oak? Maybe they could compose their own song? Maybe all of these things. Even to a present tenser like Cardinal moving forward required might require a visioning of what could be.

So.. on a recent flight, Cardinal proposed a detour and they ended up in what looked like to Hummingbird a rainbow factory. In it there were hundreds of liquid colors, all shades. You could pick blue so bright it made the sky look sad or you could pick a yellow so light it made the sun scream. Cardinal said to Hummingbird,
“I want to give you, give us something that says we are together regardless of where we are and who we are. Something that shows others and you that we aren’t just two birds from different flocks, but our own unique flock. We’ll pick two colors one that reflects me and one that reflects you. We’ll dip our wings in each of those colors to symbolize our, ‘us’, to say to everyone, we blend. This way wherever we are we have a little bit of the other with us at all times.”

Hummingbird known to talk and talk even to herself for hours was silent. To have Cardinal’s colors on hes wing and her colors on his wing made their love a little more secure for some reason. It made Hummingbird simply feel...loved. Wing paint able to withstand even the greatest of rain, sleet and snow. To Cardinal it was a guarantee of sorts, color saying what is hard to say for a present tenser, "I'm here today and tomorrow and the next tomorrow."


And as the season began to shift so would their plans, Cardinal would be temporarily flying elsewhere and Hummingbird would decide whether to migrate, fly with Cardinal or stay in the world of gray without her constant, her Cardinal. But here…now in this factory of color, they made a promise to each other. Crimson and emerald paints colored their wings as they flew together into the next season and beyond.